


Podcast Hosts Make Surprisingly Effective Alarm Clocks

by E_Salvatore



Series: Tagged: TBTP Tumblr Fics [7]
Category: The Black Tapes Podcast
Genre: F/M, Tumblr ficlet, pointless and plotless fluff, this might be the shortest thing I've ever written?, yay me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 08:46:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5961256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/E_Salvatore/pseuds/E_Salvatore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tiny little ficlet written after the fandom unanimously decided that Strand is most definitely not a morning person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Podcast Hosts Make Surprisingly Effective Alarm Clocks

“Richard?”

He’s tempted to pull the covers up and over his head, but she’d probably tease him all day for it.

“Richard,” Alex coos, close enough for him to feel her short little exhale of laughter. “Time to wake up, sleepy head.” Fingers slide into his hair, blunt nails scratching lightly at his scalp. It feels very, very nice and has the unintentional side effect of making him that much more reluctant to open his eyes and leave their bed.

“Are you-” She’s laughing now and that’s nice too, but her fingers have abruptly ceased their movements. “Richard, are you _purring_?”

His eyes fly open. “What?” Strand huffs indignantly, scrambling to pull himself up. “I don’t-” Alex is  _still_ laughing and of course he’s always happy to be the cause of that, especially this early in the morning, but she can’t be allowed to slander him this way. “Alex, I do _not_ purr.”

“If you say so,” She shrugs, shoulders still shaking with silent laughter. A hand reaches out to card through his hair once again, presumably trying to minimize the damage a full night’s sleep has done to it. Perhaps he would feel a bit more self-conscious if Alex herself wasn’t currently sporting a similar look of disarray, though that’s less bedhead and more… a result of other bedtime activities.

Alex pulls away after a moment, satisfied with her handiwork. “There’s tea in the kitchen,” She tells him as she climbs back into her side of the bed, fully prepared to spend the next half hour scanning through newspaper headlines now that she’s armed with a strong cup of coffee that currently sits on her nightstand. “Better hurry if you don’t want it to get all cold and gross,” Alex warns him, sipping at her coffee to hide her smirk. Of course she could’ve just brought him the tea, but then how else would she get him out of bed before noon?

Strand groans, well acquainted with Alex’s tactics by now. “You’re supposed to make things _easier_ for the elderly, Alex,” He quips as he reluctantly pushes back the covers and gets to his feet. Past incidents of Alex letting a perfectly good cup of tea go to waste just to prove a point have taught him that if he wants hot tea, he’s going to have to get it himself.

“Oh, _now_ you want to call yourself elderly?” Alex challenges with a smirk on her face as she watches him stand up. “Because I can think of a few things a senior citizen such as yourself might have to give up on…”

“You, Miss Reagan, are insufferable.” Strand declares with a heavy sigh, only to give in to his first laugh of the day when Alex sticks her tongue out at him.

“Love you too, Grumpy,” She smiles sweetly at him before her eyes fall back to the tablet in her hand, completely unaware of the effect she has on him, of the effect those words have on him when they spill out so easily and fall off her lips like a universally-acknowledged truth instead of the miracle Strand still considers it to be.

“Tea’s getting cold.”

“Oh. Right.”

As promised, he finds a pot of tea waiting for him in the kitchen. He doesn’t take it back to the bedroom, choosing instead to get started on breakfast. Alex will come out soon enough, lured by the smell of pancakes and French toast. It’s nice to fall back into the routine of preparing an actual meal for breakfast, now that he has someone to cook for.

The sun is too bright, the hour is too early and Strand is never going to be a morning person.

Still, he finds himself humming under his breath as he waits for Alex to wander out of their room in search of more coffee and food and him.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this like, two weeks ago, and hasn't planned on moving it over here but it's a solid six hundred words or so of fluff and I think we could all use some of that right now. [Here's an earlier attempt at this ficlet, written from Alex's POV.](http://eleanor-3.tumblr.com/post/137888144662/deleted-scene-from-ficlet-1)


End file.
